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AS 1851 - 2005: Annual Fire Safety Statement: EPAR

Prior to signing the EPAR Annual Fire Safety Statement, the Australian Standard, AS 1851 - 2005 Maintenance of fire protection systems and equipment, details the maintenance regime recommended for fire protection systems and equipment which building regulations and Building Code of Australia nominate as an essential fire safety measure.

Consistency: AS 1851 - 2005

There is an apparent lack of consistency in safety standards around Australia from one building to the next, depending on when they were built and the systems that were required at the time of construction, including various amendments to AS 1851 which can affect the signing of the Annual Fire Safety Statement. While there is usually no requirement to upgrade systems in an older building - unless it is modified requiring council approval - the legislation that requires property owners to keep the buildings safe can emphasise that the systems (essential fire safety measures) be maintained to perform to the standard to which they where installed, and a number of states include these buildings in the Annual Fire Safety Statement.

Reliability: AS 1851 - 2005

AS 1851 - 2005 attempts to maximise the reliability of these essential fire safety measures to perform to the standard to which they were originally installed. In the absence of other maintenance benchmarks, AS 1851 - 2005 has become an industry best practise standard. Property owners and managers, when striving to show due diligence (before signing the Annual Fire Safety Statement) in maintaining safety standards, use this benchmark when specifying required preventative maintenance.

Revisions: AS 1851 - 2005

AS 1851 was revised in 2005 to combine 16 previous parts and add 4 new maintenance regimes for extra systems. The new presentation of the maintenance procedures has attempted to provide greater transparency and simplification of the requirements. Of course, this version of AS 1851 - 2005, in general, has higher levels of servicing in either detail or frequency of service. Which leaves the question for a property owner of whether the new level of AS 1851 - 2005 maintenance is legally required for their buildings essential fire safety measures. Compliance with AS 1851 - 2005 in most cases, comply with the Annual Fire Safety Statement requirements, which leads to the signing of the Annual Fire Safety Statement.

Council Documentation: AS 1851 - 2005

The answer will generally lie in the documentation approved by council (or private building surveyor/ certifier in the essential fire safety measures determination/ schedule) at the time the building was built or last modified with approval, this is the base information required for an Annual Fire Safety Statement. When this documentation nominates a maintenance standard (i.e AS 1851) that is required for the essential fire safety measure, the year of issue of that maintenance standard should also be nominated. Therefore, buildings completed prior to 2005 may not require the 2005 regime. Similarly, buildings completed after 2005 may have a previous version of AS 1851 nominated as the required maintenance standard required for the signing of the Annual Fire Safety Statement.

Benefits: AS 1851 - 2005

However while there may be some extra one off costs or annual costs in the delivery of the new AS 1851 - 2005 standard, there are several benefits.

The first, is that by adopting the 2005 version of AS 1851, the property owner is in the best position regarding the duty of care provisions relative to maintaining essential fire safety measures and the Annual Fire Safety Statement obligations.

The second is the suggestion that the life cycle approach adopted will reduce whole of life system costs as components and systems benefit from better preventative maintenance under AS 1851 - 2005.

Thirdly, the flexibility of moving from weekly to monthly tests on some essential fire safety measure systems may represent one off costs that are offset by reduced visits to site under AS 1851 - 2005.

Conclusion: AS 1851 - 2005

While there is no legislation that specifies the use of the specification in AS 1851 - 2005, the building approval systems, duty of care and maintenance transparency and simplification indicate that AS 1851 - 2005 provides a welcome service, and can provide protection to the building owner when signing the Annual Fire Safety Statement.